Tinder Box Memories

[dread]

When I was in college in the 1980s I purchased my first two quality pipes from a Tinderbox in a now closed and gone mall in Texas - two Petersons. The clerk was rude to me and talked down to me like I was some kind of idiot kid (which may well have been an accurate impression, however it isn't how you keep customers). Never went in one again. Wished I knew where those two pipes went - I had so many moves with the military and school I lost track of them. Maybe they are somewhere at my mother's house in a box.

 

[mso489]

I think because there is a definite expertise that goes with pipes, pipe tobacco, and cigars, many of the hires to staff the counter feel defensive, learn a little bit, and feel they have to play the know-it-all to keep from getting shouldered around by the customers. So if they encounter a real newbie, rather than introducing them to the mysteries, they just abuse them. Most of the staff at my Tinder Box have been pretty good, either quietly non-commital, or actively friendly and helpful. But many pipe shops -- not Tinder Box in particular -- have this problem, even some of the grand old shops that should be way way above it. I'll say, the treatment I got at Nat Sherman in Manhattan was gracious, respectful ... downright elegant. I was waited on by one of the senior staff, and he was a real gent.

 

[woodsroad]

MSO, that Cary shop is PipeandLeaf.com online

 

[dread]

MSO, I'm sure it was the fella behind the counter and not the concept - I just never went back to one since that. It is too bad because I was smoking some lower tier OTC vanilla blend and had he turned me on to some of the top tier stuff I wouldn't have had such a long hiatus in my piping!

 

[mso489]

I'll check 'em out online. How'd I miss that? Thanks woods'.

 

[lifesizehobbit]

...in an adjoining town, Cary...

My job had me traveling to Cary about every other week for almost 2 years. A local told me that Cary was named that because it's really an acronym for: Containment Area for Relocated Yankees... :rofl:

 

[tuold]

Ah, memories. My future wife and I were shopping at the newly built City Shopping Center in Garden Grove, California when we stopped into a Tinderbox. She ended up buying me a very nice "Verona"bent brandy pipe and some house vanilla/cavendish tobacco, "Crown Royal". I smoked that stuff for many years. Even after 40+ years the pipe still serves me well. (And the wife is still kicking too =)

 

[mso489]

Friends, both born and raised in the South (Kinston, N.C., and South Carolina, not sure which town) had two daughters who were born and raised in Cary and are both fiercely emphatic that they are not contained Yankees but fully Southern. It is true, however, that many people from the North moved into Cary, especially with the expansion of Research Triangle Park, between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.

 

[lifesizehobbit]

...ended up buying me a very nice "Verona"bent brandy pipe...

Would that happen to be a Mauro Armellini "Verona" - curious because I have one of those myself. Full bent, rusticated with a gray-ish stem. I believe I also acquired that at a Tinder Box in the late 80's or early 90's.

 

[deleon]

Bought my first pipe at the Tinder Box that was located here in my city. Nording pipe and bought my first bulk tobacco there as well. Captain Spice was the first then Sherlock Holmes. We had lots of good times there on the weekends. Good friends, nice selection of beers and wine. The only sad part was the owner hired family... not only were they young and managers but they pratically gave everything away... the shop closed within 3 years... miss that place.

 

[tuold]

lifesizehobbit wrote:

Would that happen to be a Mauro Armellini "Verona" - curious because I have one of those myself. Full bent, rusticated with a gray-ish stem. I believe I also acquired that at a Tinder Box in the late 80's or early 90's.

I don't know enough to be sure if my Tinderbox Verona is related to yours. The gray-ish stem is a match.

 

[mso489]

Tinder Box is one of the major ambassadors of pipes at the malls and shopping districts across America. As a great walk-in chain (I guess JR is the great drive-in chain) Tinder Box has probably introduced millions to pipes and pipe tobacco, as well as cigars.

 

[balkisobrains]

Pretty sure we had one in our local mall through the mid-'90's. There was a tobacco shop there, but can't say for sure if it was a Tinder Box, but that sounds about right. It was great fun to walk behind the pipe smokers and smell what they were smoking in the mall. My town had an old-school tobacco shop within walking distance of the house until the early-to-mid 80's, with a sweet neon sign atop a tall brick obelisk/clock tower thing which was probably three or five stories tall.

 

[jefff]

I remember walking into the Tinder Box at Lincoln Mall in the late 70's. It seemed magical to me.